What I did on my fake vacation

My fake vacation was great. I spent Saturday with my friend Kas seeing the sites in Springfield, Illinois. We went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library which took about 2 hours to go through. I had Kas pose with the fake Lincoln family at the museum even though she was a tad creeped out by the figures. Note John Wilkes Booth lurking in the background.
Before we left the museum we hit the gift shop where I resisted buying anything. I almost bought a magnet for mom but she has a ton already and she isn't a big history buff so I decided to skip it. I was excited to see a penny squishing machine so I did spend $1 squishing pennies (50 cents a penny). It may be silly but squished pennies are my favorite souvenir maybe because they are cheap and easy to lug home.

After the museum we headed to Lincoln's Home which is free to tour because of a stipulation that Lincoln's son made when he gave the home to the state of Illinois who in turn gave it to the National Park Service. The tour doesn't take too long so if you happen to be in the Springfield area you should have time to work it into your schedule. There are a couple of other homes in the historic neighborhood that you can tour on your own but we skipped those in favor of lunch! I did snap a shot through the view tube that shows "the most photographed view of Lincoln's home."
After lunch, we headed to Camp Butler and then hit Allerton Park on the way home. Kas had never been and I thought she would enjoy the Garden of the Fu Dogs. It was enjoyable until I was swarmed by mosquitoes! I ended up with probably 40 bites which are making me itchy-itchy-itchy! Here is a shot of the end of the Garden of the Fu Dogs which leads to the evil mosquito trail.Monday (after taking it easy on Sunday) I went to a family cookout at my brother's house. Ribs, deviled eggs, baked potatoes, and seven layer salad. Yum! The lemon pie that my brother made was the so good it deserves a double yum. I did manage to get a little bit of knitting done on the third red scarf but I discovered that my first cable project is not good social knitting because I have to pay attention to the knitting. Are all cable projects like that or is it just because I am new to cables? Hopefully this week I will get a lot of knitting done.